Prosecutors show ‘rage-filled’ video as trial starts for ex-NYC police officer charged in Jan. 6 riot
Physique digicam video captured a “rage-filled” retired police officer attacking one of many outnumbered cops attempting to carry off a mob of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol, a federal prosecutor instructed jurors Tuesday.
However a defence lawyer stated one other video from a unique angle reveals that former New York Metropolis police officer Thomas Webster acted in self-defence after a Metropolitan Police Division officer punched him first.
Jurors noticed each movies initially of Webster’s trial, the primary amongst dozens of instances wherein a defendant is charged with assaulting police on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Hava Mirell additionally confirmed jurors a photograph of Webster holding a U.S. Marine Corps flag on a steel pole in entrance of the Washington monument earlier than the riot erupted.
“He’s smiling in that picture, however that smile would quickly flip to rage,” she stated through the trial’s opening statements.
WARNING: This video incorporates violence. Police body-camera video reveals the second a retired New York Metropolis police officer, Thomas Webster, allegedly attacked an officer working to carry off rioters on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. 1:18
The prosecutor instructed jurors they’ll hear testimony from Noah Rathbun, the officer whom Webster is charged with assaulting with the flag pole.
Webster shoved a motorcycle rack at Rathbun earlier than swinging the flag pole on the officer in a downward chopping movement, placing a steel barricade in entrance of the officer, in keeping with Mirell. After Rathbun grabbed the damaged pole and retreated, Webster “hunkered down,” charged on the officer and tackled him to the bottom, the place Rathbun started to choke from the chin strap on his fuel masks, the prosecutor stated.
Defence lawyer James Monroe accused Rathbun of utilizing extreme drive and scary Webster by punching him within the face.
“The federal government did not let you know about that,” Monroe instructed jurors.
Mirell stated Rathbun caught out an open palm to create house between him and Webster.
“However the defendant stored getting angrier and angrier,” she added.
Choose calls Webster ‘an instigator’
U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta, who’s presiding over Webster’s trial, stated throughout a bond listening to final June that he did not see Webster getting punched within the face on a video. The choose described Webster as an instigator.
“It was his conduct that type of broke the dam, at the very least in that space,” Mehta stated, in keeping with a transcript.
Webster, now a self-employed landscaper, retired from the NYPD in 2011 after 20 years of service. He served within the Marine Corps in 1985 to 1989 earlier than becoming a member of the NYPD in 1991. His division service included a stint on then-mayor Michael Bloomberg’s non-public safety element.
Webster introduced a gun when he travelled alone to Washington from his dwelling in Florida, N.Y., a village in Orange County about 110 kilometres northwest of New York Metropolis. He wore his NYPD-issued bulletproof vest however says he left the pistol in his resort room when he headed to the Jan. 6 rally the place then U.S. president Donald Trump spoke.
There ‘to have his voice heard’
Webster faces six counts, together with assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer utilizing a harmful weapon. He is not accused of coming into the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“In his thoughts, this can be a protest. He isn’t taking on any Capitol,” Monroe stated. “He is there to have his voice heard.”
Monroe additionally has argued that Webster was exercising his First Modification free speech rights when he shouted profanities at police that day. The defence lawyer prompt that Webster turned upset as a result of he noticed others within the crowd who had been injured and bleeding.
Webster’s trial is the fourth earlier than a jury and the sixth total. The primary three Capitol riot defendants to get a jury trial had been convicted of all expenses of their respective indictments. In a pair of bench trials, a unique federal choose heard testimony with out a jury earlier than acquitting one defendant and partially acquitting one other.
Greater than 780 folks have been charged with riot-related federal crimes. The Justice Division says greater than 245 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding legislation enforcement. Greater than 250 riot defendants have pleaded responsible, largely to nonviolent misdemeanours.
Jurors convicted two rioters of interfering with officers. One of many rioters, Thomas Robertson, was an off-duty police officer from Rocky Mount, Va. The opposite, Texas resident Man Wesley Reffitt, additionally was convicted of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun.
The third Capitol rioter to be convicted by a jury was Dustin Byron Thompson, an Ohio man who stated he was following Trump’s orders.
